Computer Systems & Networking

UW CSE is exploring new frontiers in systems and networking research, which encompasses the fundamental aspects of operating systems, distributed systems, networks, and security. This is a high-impact, collaborative area that reflects a variety of faculty interests and expertise, including: operating systems structure; network and systems reliability; robust protocol design; Internet security and privacy; peer-to-peer systems; mobile and wireless systems; high-performance, scalable cluster-based systems; the measurement of deployed, wide-area systems, such as the Web and content distribution networks; pervasive computing; cloud computing; and virtual machine technology.

Noteworthy projects from our labs include: Arrakis, the award-winning operating system that removes barriers between increasingly sophisticated apps and the hardware on which they run for unprecedented customizability, reliability, and performance; Ambient Backscatter, a novel technique for transforming existing wireless signals into both a source of power and a communication medium, eliminating the need for batteries; and Sapphire, a distributed programming platform that simplifies the design and deployment of mobile and cloud applications in today’s heterogeneous environment of smartphones, tablets, personal devices, and variable network connectivity, reducing complexity while providing developers with fine-grained control in building widely distributed, massively multi-user, and eternally persistent mobile and cloud applications.